THE HOTEL BARS TO RE-OPEN.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1915, 25 November 1913, Page 8

THE HOTEL BARS TO RE-OPEN.

ON WEDNESDAY. • THE WATCH TO BE MAINTAINED. Asked yesterday to make a statement respecting tho reopening of tlio Wellington hotels, His. Worship tho Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) said that he had carefully considered tliis matter and 'had decided that tho hotel bars would bo allowed to reopen as from to-morrow (Wednesday) morning. Close observation had been kept on the various licensed: premises during the time that they liadl been closed, and, when they wero reopened, that vigilance would not be Tclaxed.

Tho Mayor went on to say that lie had given the matter the fullest consideration. One aspect of tlio case af-. fecting the position of Mayor ini such matters is defined in the statute, which gives him power to close the hotels "when tumults and riots' are likely to occur." In the past these troubles "may have been accentuated by drinking in hotels near the waterfront. Now, 'if only those hotels had boon closed, the person in quest of liquor would' simply have adjourned to other hotels further back, and, to go still further, and close those hotels, too, might have meant transferring the drinking back to remote parts of tho city whore police supervision* is not so strong as it is in the centre of the town. He had' tliereforo deemed it advisable in the interests of tho city and citizens as a wlolc to close tho wholo of the bars. Tlio discreet exercise of this prerogative would, ho felt suro, assist in tho government of tho city on solid and safe lines during the present trouble.